Ten Strangely Cruel Science Experiments

aalobode writes "The Times of London has a current story based on the review of a book by Alex Boase, Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments. There they list the top science experiments — including the one from which the book gets its name — that were conducted by otherwise sane humans who tragically or otherwise ignored the effect of their research on the subjects themselves. Nowadays, most institutions have a review board for research on human subjects which would flag most proposals that could lead to harm for the subjects, but not so in the past. 'Another 1960s experiment, in which ten soldiers on a training flight were told by the pilot that the aircraft was disabled, and about to ditch in the ocean. They were then required to fill in insurance forms before the crash -- ostensibly so the Army was not financially liable for any deaths or injuries. They were actually unwitting participants in an experiment: the plane was not crippled at all. It revealed that fear of imminent death indeed causes soldiers to make more mistakes than usual when filling in forms.'"

Comments

Re:Fill out a Form?

[apparently]

as opposed to the republican health care program in which the richest country in the world can't take care of its citizens' basic needs.

This is what religion brings to the slab

[Jim in Buffalo]

If you have a scientist who is devoutly religious, and who believes that he is serving God's will by torturing his test subjects, there's no end of the misery, since there no beginning of basic scientific or medical ethics. Religion teaches us that other people are not worthy of God's love, and can be used in any way we see fit. An atheist, one who is not beholden to fascism or communism, which are also religions after a fashion, is far more likely to see a human being or even an animal as being worthy of compassion and mercy. Now mod me as Flamebait so no-one else gets riled up by this.